


burning it down

by iwaixumi



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Angst with a hopeful/happy ending, M/M, a handshake with dramatic implications, a singular implied sexual comment, canon universe with divergence at timeskip, fellas is it gay to pull a politician's strings just to stay your ex boyfriend's rival?, vague mentioning of a suicide attempt or suicidal tendencies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwaixumi/pseuds/iwaixumi
Summary: Five years after their breakup, Karma reenters Gakushuu's life as his political rival.
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	burning it down

**Author's Note:**

> rediscovered my love for both karma and gakushuu recently and decided to try my hand at writing them ! hope you enjoy <3
> 
> (special thanks to my irl syd for being my wonderful beta)

The sounds of high-stakes political networking are thus:

casual chatter coming from all corners of the room, discussing topics as widely varying as family pets to international secrets;

the bright chime a champagne flute makes when taken from the granite counter of a well-stocked bar;

the outburst of a stressed event planner to an event employee about a minor mistake, not whispered so much as it is yelled;

and occasionally, expectedly, yet somehow impossibly, the distinctive laugh of someone so deeply entrenched in Gakushuu’s past that their presence right now is completely unavoidable - no matter how hard he might try to reject the biological design of a spider to always eat the fly trapped in its web eventually. 

Akabane’s laugh itself sounds like it has devil horns and feels like a chainsaw cutting straight through Gakushuu’s rib cage. Gakushuu eyes the still-full champagne flute in his hand before downing it in one fell swoop. The three fellow members of the National Diet standing with him, who share the typical surface-level pleasantries he’s been accustomed to since childhood, do not seem to notice the twitch in his eyebrows or white-knuckle grip he has on his now-empty glass. 

Gakushuu knew Akabane was going to be here, but that doesn’t prevent his jaw from tightening or his teeth from grinding at the confirmation of his attendance. He’s been at every social event hosted by any member of the government for the past year - even the ones he has no business or clearance to be at. If Gakushuu didn’t know Akabane personally, he would question the security of these events for letting an outsider in this easily. Actually, he should file a complaint anyway. 

“Excuse me, I’m going to replace my glass. I’ll be right back.” Gakushuu has to loosen his jaw to smile at his colleagues, who nod in return. Once turned around, his teeth return to grinding as he makes his way to the bar. 

As soon as he places his empty glass on the bar, a new one replaces it filled just slightly more than his last. Perfect. He takes a sip to resituate and have a moment to himself before heading back to the center floor where he has only the next two hours to charm his coworkers into appointing him as the next Prime Minister of Japan at their meeting in three days. 

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. 

“What are you doing way over here by yourself, number two? Tired of the event already? What a shame - the party just started!” 

Gakushuu’s breath hitches and gets caught uncomfortably in his throat. He keeps his eyes closed for another moment. Maybe if he keeps them closed, his provocateur will get bored and leave like the elementary school child he is. Maybe Gakushuu just can’t bring himself to open them at all. 

There’s a puff of air in his face from what he imagines is a hand waving in front of it, just barely missing the tip of his nose. 

“Hello? Anybody home?” 

He was too hopeful to think Akabane would ever willingly walk away before starting something.

Gakushuu suppresses the overwhelming desire to reach out and smack the hand away from his face and forces his eyes to open, despite their clear desire to protect him from what he knows will happen next. 

The sight of Akabane’s self-satisfied smirk hits Gakushuu like a punch to the gut. The wind is knocked out of him instantly, and his chest tightens where the heart nestled inside his rib cage knows it’s not supposed to be. 

_(the heart that’s been laying in his chest for the past five years is not the same bruised strawberry-shaped one he once cried and tore his flesh over. it is volatile, radioactive, and not his, although it is molded in the shape of him.)_

_(he can hear his own strawberry heart calling out from the cracked chest of the man before him.)_

“Finally! I thought you had fallen asleep standing up. I was just about to knock you over to wake you.”

Gakushuu notes that his eyes are not gleaming; they are empty and reflect right back at him like an old mirror painted over with gold in a fruitless attempt at hiding the scratches and tarnishes forever etched into its bones.

“What a shame,” Gakushuu replies flatly. The smirk plastered on Akabane’s face does not falter, and the lack of light behind his eyes in a situation that - at one point - provided it only emphasizes the large wall now erected between them.

“Now, now, don’t be like that. A Prime Minister should be kind to everybody.”

Gakushuu remains unimpressed. “I could say the same to you.”

Akabane’s planted smirk transforms into a real one for a split second. Gakushuu’s stomach flips and he bites his tongue so hard he tastes iron in the back of his throat. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Akabane places one hand on his chest and the other in the air to project honesty and innocence. “I’m just an average citizen.”

“Yeah, okay, and I’m not the youngest majority leader of the House of Representatives.”

Akabane winks. Gakushuu wants to wipe that look off his face so badly his free hand twitches. 

“I’m excited to see what happens at the meeting in a few days,” Akabane muses as if talking to himself, “It will be nice to finally be appointed as the official number one.”

A white-hot pang of both anger and annoyance hits Gakushuu and something akin to a migraine begins to form behind his eyes. The same childish provocations Akabane has used for the entire time they’ve known each other aren’t triggering the same responses in his brain that they always did - what once triggered competitive annoyance and eventual respect now makes Gakushuu sick to his stomach as memories of their past flood his senses.

_(he wonders what karma would do if he yanked him by the hair and kissed him now in this ballroom instead of the kunigaoka high school library after hours.)_

_(would he still taste like strawberries and burn his mouth like fire?)_

“It wouldn’t count if I lose since you are not my official opponent. Nobody knows who you are.”

Akabane raises an eyebrow. “But that’s the beauty in it; I get to keep my anonymity while controlling the Prime Minister as his primary advisor,” he gestures openly with his arms, leaving his chest vulnerable to Gakushuu, who wants nothing more than to plunge his hand inside and switch out Akabane’s poisonous heart beating erratically in his rib cage with his strawberry one which has been stuck somewhere it doesn’t belong for far too long. His window of opportunity closes when Akabane leans forward just slightly - but still far too close - and flashes his sharp canines. 

“As long as you know that I’ve won, Gakushuu, nothing else matters.”

The use of his given name on the tongue of someone who used to use it so freely leaves Gakushuu feeling like he just grabbed a livewire, burning him inside out with a single jolt. 

_As long as you know that I’ve won, Gakushuu, nothing else matters._

And there it is. The pattern they have fallen into is the same one they followed as teenagers. The focus of their ambitions, the one they each have always been hell-bent on proving themselves to time and time again, the only person important enough in their lives to render every other person in it irrelevant has always been each other. 

“I have the vote of the House of Representatives; as long as I don’t lose that, I’m going to be the next Prime Minister whether you like that or not, Akabane.” Gakushuu states bluntly, the words rolling off his tongue much smoother than he anticipated. 

_(this time, falling back to his high school words feels more like a new beginning than it does a regression to a place behind a bolted door. gakushuu is not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it scares him nonetheless.)_

Akabane’s expression falters for a moment, just long enough for Gakushuu to notice but too short for him to identify or categorize the emotion that broke through his facade. 

“I appreciate your confidence - it’ll make my win that much more satisfying.”

“Looking forward to it,” Gakushuu replies with the signature dry sarcasm that has gotten him through a number of these conversations, still thrown off by the momentary crack in Akabane. 

Akabane clicks his tongue and slowly shakes his head, as if he’s chiding a dog. The tips of Gakushuu's ears heat up and his jaw clenches. 

“Well, Asano, it’s been a pleasure. See you around.” Akabane flashes his typical amused smirk before stalking off, but the trademark glint in his eye still does not appear. 

Gakushuu blinks in surprise at Akabane’s sudden parting and pointed use of his last name. Now suddenly alone, the sounds of the room return, surrounding him with mindless chatter and clinking glass, leaving him feeling more alone than he has felt in years. He downs half his champagne in one go and forces himself back to the task at hand: keeping the votes he already has locked down and possibly flipping the House of Councillors for a more decisive and comfortable victory in the face of his true opponent. He has not rested well knowing how unpredictable life and its tests can be with Akabane on the opposing side.

_(sleeping hasn’t come easy for a while now; not with the seemingly permanent dip in his mattress fit for another that lingers no matter how many times he buys a new one and doesn’t go away no matter how many others try to reshape it.)_

Gakushuu returns to the group he had been talking to, before a ghost took control of his evening with a late apology, and jumps back into conversation easily. He has always been good at swallowing his feelings and hiding his bruises for the sake of ambition. 

Gakushuu falls into a comfortable routine as the night wears on. He works the room easily and confidently, spending just the right amount of time saying just the right things to just the right people. The more he can throw himself into the task at hand, the further his feelings slip into the back of his mind where they fester for later. 

Yet, no matter how many conversations had and secrets shared, the hair on the back of his neck continues to stand on end. It is as if that single encounter with his ex-lover set off every intuitive alarm; he is instinctively preparing for something, but he doesn’t know what - or if it will happen at all. He rubs the back of his neck occasionally when it prickles and grows hot as it would if someone were breathing down it. 

_(he can almost feel canines bite into his soft flesh and the amorous desires of the person whose heart learned how to heal with his.)_

Gakushuu stays at the event until few others remain. He is, as expected, milking this final opportunity to persuade and network for all it’s worth. Although he becomes more confident about the number of votes he will receive in three days time, he becomes increasingly unsettled as the night comes to a close. 

Akabane is nowhere to be seen in the ballroom amongst the handful of people left. Gakushuu is not sure why this fact dries his mouth and causes his stomach to drop; he decides it’s a train of thought he doesn’t want to start now. 

As soon as he realizes his hand is shaking - whether in anger, fear, or anxiety, he doesn’t know - Gakushuu decides to call it a night. He gives his thanks to the staff and event planner, checks in one final time with the last attendants to bid them farewell, and heads out into the warm summer night air. He drove to the event, but the idea of getting in the confined space of his car just to arrive at his quiet house twenty minutes quicker makes him feel more alone than he typically does. 

_(he remembers a time when his house was a home and the nights had hands that would brush through his hair while he slept.)_

“Finally, you’re here. I was starting to think you were going to stay the night there.”

Akabane’s unmistakable silhouette emerges from where he had been leaning against a wall and approaches Gakushuu. 

Gakushuu’s fists clench at his sides, an act noted by Akabane with a quirked eyebrow. “What the fuck is your goal,” Gakushuu says more like a statement than a question, taking a step towards Akabane and pointing a finger at him sharply. 

Akabane tilts his head to the side in genuine bewilderment like a confused housepet. Gakushuu hates how endearing he still finds it. 

“To get my candidate appointed?”

Now that they are outside, away from the prying ears and eyes of important politicians and colleagues, Gakushuu’s desire to keep up appearances and maintain a level head has evaporated. The emotions that have been intensifying in every possible space of his mind and chest for the past five years have doubled in just the last three hours alone. 

Akabane not knowing what made Gakushuu so upset would be funny - especially given the very obvious contextual circumstances - if it didn’t just leave him ripped apart at the seams like a ragdoll and indescribably angry. 

Gakushuu stares at Akabane for a moment, searching in his odd-colored eyes for a hint of anything. Nothing comes. The hand pointing at Akabane is shaking. 

“Five years. It’s been five years, and you decide today - of all days, today - is the day you’re going to show up and pretend we’re back in high school again.” He closes his pointed finger into a fist and drops it. “Even you cannot be stupid enough to not understand why that makes me angry.”

Karma shrugs easily, a smug smile of sorts still playing at his lips. 

“Well, you have always said I’m _’the single most idiotic and infuriating_ \- ’”

“ - I know what I’ve said,” Gakushuu interrupts, all patience dissipating in an instant.

Akabane’s smirk falls, revealing a hardened expression virtually unreadable to anyone. Except Gakushuu isn’t just anyone, and Akabane can’t hide pain from his eyes no matter how well he can mask everything else. 

_(when they met, karma’s eyes always looked like that.)_

“Like you said: it’s been five years, Asano,” Akabane states bluntly, matter-of-factly in a way that makes Gakushuu’s chest tight even though they are his own words.

Gakushuu ignores the way every nerve in his body rejects the shape of Akabane’s mouth as it says his name like a stranger. 

“It’s time we start acting like it.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” 

Gakushuu, rage quickly replacing his earlier desire for ambivalence, takes another step forward, pushing himself through the comfortable wall Akabane has built between them. Akabane, as Gakushuu knew he would, does not back up even an inch, allowing Gakushuu to invade his space and get close enough to feel his body heat even through the summer air. 

“You’re going to pretend like you didn’t avoid and ignore me for years and come back just to wedge yourself in as an important advisor in my opponent’s political career without even speaking a word to me?” 

Gakushuu must be seeing things because he swears the man in front of him stutters. Gakushuu’s anger falters at this crack, leaving him with an increased feeling of confusion-induced annoyance.

“One way or another one of us will always be at the top,” Akabane says. “I saw an opportunity to have our final competition - a grand finale - and decided to take it.”

Gakushuu gapes at him in disbelief. The word _final_ does not go unnoticed. His stomach lurches. 

“So that’s it? This is all for some stupid rivalry we had as teenagers?”

Akabane’s face twists and Gakushuu takes a half step back instinctively in alarm when his gaze is met with an expression that can only be defined as hellfire. 

“Stupid rivalry?” 

Akabane’s facade has completely split open, leaving his emotions in full, terrifying view to Gakushuu, who both wanted this to happen and completely forgot how painful and spine-chilling this display of total vulnerability is to witness. 

“That _‘stupid rivalry’_ is what got us here, today, remember? Or has it been so long that you forgot? Do you need me to remind you how it happened, Gakushuu?” 

He takes a step forward, closing the space Gakushuu created a moment ago. Akabane is tall, but suddenly he feels even larger and more threatening as he enters Gakushuu’s space. The heart that isn’t his roars in his ears. 

“Karma -”

“It was a warm night like this, wasn’t it? I was texting you my usual taunts, trying to get a rise out of you - even though it wasn’t actually all that annoying to you anymore and hadn’t been for some time, I think - but you weren’t responding with your trademark insults. In fact, you weren’t responding at all,” Karma forces Gakushuu to take another step back. 

“Something was wrong; call it instinct, divine motivation, intuition, whatever you want, but I just knew. You were my rival, yes, but also my motivation, and our competition - your existence - made me feel things and connected us in ways I still don’t have the words to describe. So I went to find you.”

Karma spits the words out like a curse - like it annoys him - and Gakushuu watches with wide eyes, imposter heart pounding in his chest, as Karma doesn’t even pause to take a breath before pushing forward with an almost sarcastic tone.

“We never talked about it, did we? I never got to tell you that I knew instantly why you were at that bridge across town.” 

Gakushuu’s mouth seals shut and he can feel the blood drain from his face. 

Karma presses on, his tone shifting from mocking to blunt, anger shortening his heavy words. 

“I could tell because it was the first time I had ever seen you completely empty.”

_(gakushuu doesn’t say that he saw something resembling wistfulness in karma when he had described the feeling in his stomach just before jumping off a cliff in junior high.)_

_(gakushuu doesn’t say that he saw that same emptiness in karma when he had said he was saved before hitting the bottom.)_

“And you remember what happened next, don’t you? You stayed at my house almost every night after that. You kissed me in the library two weeks later. The way you kissed me told me that we were either going to conquer the world together or burn it down trying.”

“We’re not together anymore, Karma!” Gakushuu’s words find themselves regurgitating up his throat in a sudden painful outburst. “Why does it matter? Why does it matter how we got together?”

Gakushuu knows exactly why it matters, which is why the question sets fire to his chest and his skin tears when he sees the way Karma freezes, face dark and still in a way far more terrifying than the animal before.

“The only reason you’re even _here_ , standing on your stage, close to the highest office in Japan, is because of us,” Karma says slowly, spitting out every syllable like it burns his tongue. “Sure, you’re Mr. Perfect, Mr. Destined-For-Greatness, but our _‘stupid rivalry’_ is what got you this far.”

“And you?” Gakushuu presses, rising to meet Karma at his level. 

“Same as you, I’m just not enough of a prideful asshole to deny it.” 

The words would have a bite to them if Gakushuu didn’t already know them to be true.

Gakushuu’s exacerbation at not getting a real answer to his question concerning Karma’s intentions beats out any fear or discomfort he once had in the face of hellfire. 

“But why does it matter! Why are you _here_ , Karma? What do you get from this?” 

“Don’t pretend like this wasn’t always my plan,” Karma points a rigid finger dangerously close to Gakushuu’s chest. “I would be doing this even if we hadn’t broken up, and don’t ever think otherwise.”

Gakushuu has to bite his tongue to stop himself from making the situation even worse. 

It’s almost unbelievable - this situation he is in. Of course their rivalry is important. Of course their lives are inextricably linked to each other; but hearing Karma admit these things out loud after having heard nothing from him at all in the past five years has Gakushuu’s stomach doing flips. 

Maybe Karma feels the same way he does; maybe -

“What would you call this now?” Gakushuu asks, blood rushing in his ears.

“A waste of time,” Karma scoffs, dropping his pointed finger dramatically and looking away with a roll of his eyes. 

He replaces his darkened expression alarmingly fast in favor of one of general disinterest. 

Gakushuu waves his hand quickly in dismissal, as impatient as the heart in his chest threatening to burst. 

“No, I mean, you said we were either going to conquer the world or burn it down trying! We aren’t together anymore so which is it? What would you call this now? What are we doing?”

Karma hesitates for just a few seconds too long and Gakushuu knows immediately what he’s about to say. 

“Burning it down trying.”

Suddenly the pieces fall into place. The closure Karma was attempting to find in this grand finale; why he wanted so badly to solidify his place in Gakushuu’s life forever as one step in front or behind, irreplaceable and inescapable at one of the most important moments in it; what he was trying to prove by reigniting their rivalry after all these years - trying to stay an undeniable factor in either victory or failure. 

When Gakushuu woke up this morning, he never expected to be here: standing on a quiet side street on his way home from the ballrooms, listening to a confession from Akabane Karma. 

He probably looks so stupid right now. If they weren’t in the middle of addressing five-years worth of pent-up thoughts and emotions, Karma might have laughed at the way his mouth is stuck slightly open, mind frozen and stuttering.

“Were you _jealous_ I had an opponent that wasn’t you?” Gakushuu gapes, genuinely incredulous and overwhelmed. 

Karma’s answer comes in the form of a face red enough to match his hair. 

A laugh wrangles its way up from the back of Gakushuu’s throat in the way that laughter always manages to come at the end of all things. 

_(it’s been five years since he laughed this honestly.)_

“Hey, wait! Hold on! What’s so funny?” Karma demands through Gakushuu’s laughter. 

He can almost see a red-haired child in front of him, stamping his foot in a desperate attempt to regain control. 

He laughs harder. 

Tears prickle at the corners of his eyes and he’s not sure what they are supposed to represent; relief, fear, joy, anger, and anxiety all coexist in his lungs, and deciphering which one is powerful enough in this moment to be leaking from him like water from a broken faucet is an impossible task. 

“I’m amazed you ever surpassed me at anything being this much of an idiot,” Gakushuu finally says, a small giggle escaping his chest still as he wipes the corners of his eyes. 

“Since we’re being honest here,” he continues, almost laughing once more when he sees the still-red face of his one and only true rival, “I wasn’t too happy about my rival being him, either. It was annoying that some nobody in the House of Councillors could be such a nuisance; it made much more sense when I discovered your involvement.”

Karma’s face contorts into something resembling disbelief, then relief, then embarrassment as he turns away and brushes at his hair. 

“This is so stupid,” Karma mumbles. 

“We’re stupid,” Gakushuu corrects. 

Karma lowers his hand and faces Gakushuu, his face soft in the way it always was for him - in the way he hasn’t seen in a long time, in the way he has missed more than he even knew. 

Slowly, Karma’s mouth twitches into a smirk. Not a performance of mischievousness like before, but a real, honest-to-God smirk, complete with the bowing of his eyebrows and the shifting tides in his mercury eyes. 

“I have a proposition for you,” Karma states confidently with a dangerous lilt in his voice. 

Gakushuu raises an eyebrow, interest brewing at the sight.

“What might that be?”

“I work my magic tomorrow, you get voted into office, I serve as _your_ advisor.” 

He emphasizes each step of his plan with a countdown on his fingers, slowly putting down four fingers one-by-one until only his index finger remains, and ends with a predatory smile that even makes the hair on Gakushuu’s neck stand on end. 

“We conquer the world together.” 

Karma tucks in his last finger into a fist.

Gakushuu’s other eyebrow raises in an exaggerated display of amused surprise. 

“Don’t worry so much, I couldn’t be your puppet master even if I wanted to,” Karma flashes his sharp teeth and holds his hands up as if surrendering. 

_(they both know he could if he wanted to. so could gakushuu. this is what trust means to them.)_

“Glad you know your place, number two.”

Karma rolls his eyes.

“I’m not number two yet.”

He extends a hand. 

There is no other option. 

Gakushuu takes it firmly. 

Suddenly he is pulled forward, chest flushed against Karma’s, and his lips are taken in a bruising kiss. A kiss full of contradictions: too late, yet at the perfect time; rough, yet the softest he has ever had; unsure like there was any other choice but this, yet confident in the knowledge that this was the only option. 

_(it doesn’t taste like strawberries and it doesn’t burn like fire down his throat. it tastes like champagne and splits his chest in half.)_

_(it makes him feel what karma felt all those years ago.)_

Between them, the hearts they stole from each other return home; forever bruised from things out of their control but whole, loved, and permanently shaped by calloused and gentle hands much softer than they believed they deserved.

The kiss spoke in no uncertain terms:

They are going to conquer the world together.

**Author's Note:**

> did some research into the japanese political system for this but i'm not an expert so i apologize for any misinformation ! 
> 
> kudos and comments much appreciated! <3  
> ([my twitter](http://twitter.com/bokutoknits))


End file.
